InVendor | Devpost

The Problem

There is a huge gap between the supply and demand of ideas - while crowdfunding businesses such as Kickstarter gross $3.93 billion dollars in donations, only 33% of inventors ever see any profit from their inventions. This is due to the impracticality of living as an inventor in the modern world.

We identified the culprit behind this impracticality as the limited options inventors have to monetize their ideas - choosing to dedicate years of their life writing a multi-thousand dollar patent that will be locked from the world, or start their own business and hope to survive the overpopulated business world.

Our Solution

InVendor creates a new route for inventors to take, a method that allows for the infinite growth of an idea, while guaranteeing eternal credit of creation - selling to the public domain. By the US Code, Title 35 Section 102, patents cannot be granted for ideas already described publicly. By providing a crowdfunding system which exchanges the freedom of ideas for immediate capital, inventors will be able to live doing what they love in a sustainable way.

Implementation

We used Microsoft Azure, MySQL, Android Studio, and Java for developing the basic server-client structure needed to operate a crowdfunding system. Java was used to program a back-end server, while Android Studio was used to develop our front-end application. We connected our back-end server with Microsoft Azure to store data on current projects, project funding progress, and user accounts.

An Alien Ecosystem

The greatest challenge that our team faced, by far, was our inexperience in our project domain. Though a few of us had taken database systems classes in the past, turning knowledge to application was quite the endeavor. Creating the server-back end, connecting it to a remote database, and developing an android app capable of connecting all of the steps was no doubt a huge wall to climb.

Leaving with Dignity

We are very proud of our user login system back-end. Though what we ended off with was far from the success guarantee, our app is the culmination of five guys doing what they love in an energetic environment. It is from our accomplishments - making our first server-client connection system, using knowledge from class in the real-world, developing an android app in a limited amount of time - that we have gained great confidence in our ability to execute our ideas, be it partially.

The Fruit of Our Labor

From this Hackathon, we have learned how pushing our own limits can expand the world we see. Be it driving for hundreds of miles, staying up for all 24 hours, restraining ourselves from the endless supply of snacks and red bull, or more importantly venturing into unknown fields, we have gained greater confidence in our ability to push onwards towards our futures.

The Future of Inventing

Depending on how well InVendor is received, we may choose whether or not to develop InVendor as a non-profit organization for the benefit of ourselves and our peers. We all would love for a system like InVendor to exist, and believe that the world would greatly benefit by a new age of innovative developments.